to south from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico
and east to west from the Appalachians to the
eastern Plains. The largest Mississippian settle-
ments are centered along the Mississippi River and
its major tributaries. At the culture’s greatest ex-
tent, the Mississippian population numbers in the
millions.
The Mississippians construct urban areas that
serve as ceremonial and trade centers. The largest is
Cahokia (see entry for CA. 800 TO 1400), which at
its height has at least 20,000 residents. In these cen-
ters the Mississippian construct enormous platform
mounds. These mounds are rectangular at the base
and topped with a series of flat tiers. On their flat
tops rest houses for hereditary leaders. These houses
are lavishly furnished with walls covered with deer
skins, and their roofs are decorated with preciousshells and pearls. When a leader dies, his house is
destroyed and in its place is built a new tier of earth,
which becomes the foundation of the next leader’s
dwelling.
The Mississippian urban centers rely on goods
obtained by traders who travel area rivers by canoe
to outlying settlements. This far-reaching trade
network brings to the centers such exotic items as
copper from the Great Lakes region, mica from the
Appalachian Mountains, and sharks’ teeth and bar-
racuda jaws from the Gulf of Mexico.
The Mississippians depend on corn, beans, and
squash, which are farmed mostly by women. Unlike
earlier mound-building cultures (see entries for CA.
200 TO 1400 and for CA. 400 TO 1500), they use
a new tool—the stone-bladed hoe—to make their
fieldwork easier. Mississippian men employ anotherThe Mississippian urban center of Cahokia, as it looked ca. 1100 to 1150. A log palisade surrounds the grand plaza,
which is dominated by the massive Monk’s Mound. (Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, painting by William R. Iseminger)ca. 700 to 1550